Spirit - Digest

Unexplained, miraculous event surrounding the
filming of Passion of the Christ

♥ Jim Caviezel who played Jesus in the Passion of the Christ, suffered severe
hypothermia, itching and shoulder separation whilst filming his scenes on the
Cross. The Cross was hovering on a thousand foot cliff and severely swaying in
the wind. as he told reporters.

♥ Caviezel was actually struck by lightning whilst filming the Sermon
on the Mount and "lit up like a Christmas tree". "About four seconds before it happened it was quiet, and
then it was like someone slapped my ears," Caviezel told Newsweek. "I had seven
or eight seconds of, like, a pink, fuzzy color, and people started screaming.
They said I had fire on the left side of my head and light around my body. All I
can tell you is that I looked like I went to Don King's hairstylist." The
crew saw fire coming out the right and left side of his head and Illumination
around the whole body.

♥ The
assistant director, Jon Mikalini, was also struck by lightning and the bolt struck the cross on which Caviezel was later to be "hung."
Both men should have died, but didn't.

♥ A lighting technician was carrying a box of cables on the set, was hit by a bolt of
lightning and dropped the box. Men ran over to him to see if he was ok and he
told them he had dropped the box and never felt the lightning hit him. He was
perfectly fine....except for a cross etched in his back from lightning. In the
same location, six months later, director Jan Michelini was struck again and
survived. Others were also struck on both occasions.

♥ Another person on the set
was playing one of the guards who beat Jesus and in real life, was Muslim. The
beatings were so vicious that the man broke down and converted to Christianity
immediately.

♥ A young man (Dan Leach) confessed to his girlfriend’s murder as a
result of seeing “The Passion of the Christ” because he had felt an enormous
guilt for what he had done to another human being. His girlfriend's death had
been ruled as a suicide so he would never had been caught if he had not
confessed. He had avidly watched Jesus say to the thief that despite all of the
sins he had committed, because he believed, he would soon be with Jesus in
paradise. Dan Leach wanted to be in Paradise with God. On August 13, 2004, Leach
was sentenced to 75 years in prison. However, the almighty power of God, using
“The Passion of the Christ”, has changed his life forever.

♥ Several very cold
hearted women, who were murderers and robbers in a Florida penitentiary who saw
“The Passion of the Christ” during the Easter weekend had their lives completely
changed for the better afterwards. They saw that they were just like the women
God loved, helped, forgave and had mercy on.

♥ The miracles moved Award winning
producer and documentary filmmaker Jody Eldred so much that Eldred has written a
book, “Changed Lives: Miracles of 'The Passion'” (Harvest House) who collected
more than 70,000 stories of miracles that came from “The Passion”.

♥ Satanists
and Wiccans who walked into the movie theatre laughing at the torture and
persecution Jesus would go through, came out sobbing and converted to
Christianity.

♥ The actor who portrays Jesus in the film, James Caviezel (whose
initials, coincidentally are J.C.), experienced some strange signs regarding the
role. Six months before he ever auditioned for the film, a total stranger walked
up to him and said, "You'll be playing Jesus."

♥ His identification with the
character of Jesus was so strong that fans felt compelled to bow down to him
when they saw him.

♥ Caviezel was literally struck by lightning while on the cross
filming the crucifixion scene. Can that possibly be considered by anyone as a
'coincidence'
"Miraculous things have happened. When I was
hit by lightning [during the filming of a crucifixion scene], it was the
one day I didn't have communion. We always had mass and I always received
communion but on that one day the priest ran out of hosts.
I was up there on the cross and I was hit and we knew I was going to be hit, we
could see it coming. And the eyes of the men below me turned glossy.
Everything was pink, fire coming from both sides of my head. And there was a
sound--it was like the sound of the planes hitting the building on 9/11, a
weird, guttural, discordant sound. Not like an explosion. And then afterwards I
heard the sound when they played one of the films, the videotape [of the World
Trade Center on 9/11, on television] and it was like a shock: 'That is the sound
of the lightning.' The plane going into the building.

♥ Mel Gibson said he received similar signs that he believes
suggested that he should make this film that he had only been considering. A
French woman, who he had never met, approached him out of nowhere and said,
"Jesus loves you."

♥ John Debney, who composed the music for the movie, says he battled with Satan as he
was working. "I was stretched every which way but loose," Debney said in an
interview with Dan Wooding for WorldNetDaily. "I was stretched by Mel Gibson. I
was stretched by the Guy Upstairs and also I was stretched by the guy
downstairs. What it did was completely strengthen my faith and I have realized
something very interesting. I had never before subscribed to the idea that maybe
Satan is a real person, but I can attest that he was in my room a lot and I know
that he hit everyone on this production. I had all these computers and
synthesizers in my studio and the hard drives would go down and the digital
picture that lives on the computer with the music would just freeze on his
[Satan's] face. Then the volume would go to ten and it would happen all the
time."

♥ Debney believes that it was a miracle that he got to work on the film
in the first place. As the composer for such film comedies as Liar, Liar and
Bruce Almighty, Debney would not have been the first choice for a film like The
Passion of the Christ. But he knew Stephen McEveety, one of the producers, from
childhood. At first he was asked just to write some special music for the film,
but when Mel Gibson heard it, he hired Debney to score the entire film. "It is a
complete miracle that I became involved with the project," he said. Debney found
the process equally miraculous. "I didn't have a lot to do with the writing of
this music. I have done a lot of music, but literally things would just come
out."

Strange things still continue to happen in association with the film:

♥
The film has been called intense, which may have contributed to a fatal heart
attack of a 57-year-old woman in Wichita, Kansas while she watched the film.

♥
BOISE, Idaho — Mel Gibson's, The Passion of the Christ, is continuing to throw
up miracles. The latest miracle reported comes from Boise, Idaho, after William
"Bud" Tugley and his wife, Mildred, went to see the movie. "We were just leaving
the theater when the demons that have been in Bud for years were cast out of his
body," reported his wife." Bud has been a bastard for as long as I've known him
and now he is a caring loving husband. Thank the Lord for Mel Gibson!" she said.
The miracle caused quite a stir as the demons erupted from Mr. Tugley mouth and
slithered all over the theater. "They seemed to be searching for another soul to
infest, but folks were giving us a pretty wide berth," Mrs. Tugley said."If you
knew Bud before this happened, you probably got the sh*t beat out of you at one
time or another," she went on. " He ran the local militia around here and I
don't know anyone that wasn't scared sh*tless of him. Now he wants to go to
church services and even plans to vote Republican!"

♥ Miracles on the Set of the
Passion

"There is an interesting power in the
script," Gibson notes. "There have been a lot of unusual things happening on
this set, good things like people being healed of diseases, a couple of people
have had sight and hearing restored, another guy was struck by lightning while
we were filming the crucifixion scene and he just got up and walked away. There
was even a little six-year-old girl (the daughter of a person connected with the
crew) who had epilepsy since she was born and had up to 50 epileptic fits a day.
She's doesn't have them anymore for over a month now." He marvels at how this
movie has effected or touched most of the cast in some deep and personal way.
"And they really give you a lot of hope. It's like wow! I mean, we're not
kidding around about this. It's really happening." On an average day Caviezel
(actor who played Jesus) goes through an arduous makeup session that lasts
anywhere from 4 to 7 hours, miraculously transforming his clean-shaven face and
partly shaved head into a believable image of Jesus. Even Gibson was amazed one
day when he saw him on camera, "He looks like the Shroud of Turin!" Caviezel's
says his performance is inspired. "Truthfully, it was never up to me." He humbly
continues, "My answer was always that I'm interested in letting God work through
me to play this role. I believe the Holy Spirit has been leading me in the right
direction and to get away from my own physical flesh and allow the character of
Jesus to be played out the way God wants it -- that's all I can do."

Is Aramaic
an intimidating language to learn? "Sure it is. But I asked God to help me and I
was able to learn it in a quick amount of time, more than I normally am able to
learn things." The devoutly Catholic Caviezel takes his role seriously, often
praying and softly quoting scripture while in character. But there's a lighter,
funny side to him (he can sing a dead-on imitation of Bing Crosby) as well as a
very patient one. He laments about the trials and tribulations of playing the
"Son of God." "I endured freezing winds that almost blew my cross off the cliff
while I was on it! Seriously! I felt it sway back and forth, and I knew it was
going to blow over." He can now chuckle about his experience, but it went on for
a couple of weeks, "To make matters worse, they had me up there, and it was
freezing cold the first day. And we were there without a heater and of course, I
don't have many clothes on the cross, so my body was going numb. It was
freezing."

Were there any other horror stories or was that the worst of his
ordeal? "I was spit on, beaten, and I carried my cross for days over and over
the same road; it was brutal." When asked about the makeup and special effects
for his crucifixion scenes he winces, "I have a 2:00 a.m. call time to get skin
and makeup put on for the flagellation and crucifixion scenes, so I'm here long
before the rest of the cast and crew. But you know what? I consider all of it
worth it to play this role; it's that important to me."

In addition to spending
15 days filming on the cross, Caviezel was scourged and whipped in chains and
ropes. "Mel likes to put violence in his movies. But the fact is, they represent
truth. That's all Mel cares about is making it look true to the text. No time
has a film of our Lord ever been shown like this one. Believe me when I say this
to you, when people get to the crucifixion scene, by that time I believe there
will be many who can't take it and will have to walk out. I guarantee it. And I
believe there will be many who will stay and be drawn to the truth." Although
Gibson feels apologetic for what Caviezel had to go through, ("I know Jim
suffered, he separated his left shoulder and was in a lot of pain and
discomfort, but he was very patient during the whole thing"), he maintains that
giving a graphic depiction of what Jesus went through before and during the time
he hung on the cross is what makes his portrayal realistic.

"This is an event
that actually happened. It occurred. I'm exploring it this way, I think, to show
the extent of the sacrifice willingly taken by Jesus -- the price he paid that
is as much a part of what Jesus went through as the resurrection." "My hope is
that this movie has a tremendous message of faith, hope,love, forgiveness and a
message of tremendous courage and sacrifice. My hope is that it will effect
people on a very profound level and somehow change them and that message is a
pretty good message to be pushing right now. There's so much turmoil in the
world today, on the brink of everybody at each others throats. I think usually
when the world is tried in this way people usually start going back to something
higher to fill a void in their souls, particularly if the earth is crying out in
pain from all the suffering and fear that's inflicted by war and hatred. For me,
I don't think there's a better message you could put out there, than what's in
this movie." That message is truly Mel Gibson's heart and passion.